Wellness

[lolakimono]

@Laura14

Thai Cauliflower Rice Salad with Peanut Butter Sauce

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

Ingredients

• For the salad
• 1 medium cauliflower head
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 small bunch fresh parsley
• 2 spring onions, roughly chopped
• ¼ cup toasted almonds, chopped
• 1 mango, peeled and cut it small cubes
• 1 bell pepper, cut in small cubes
• ½ cup red cabbage, finely chopped
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• For the sauce
• 2 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 inch ginger piece, peeled
• 2 limes, juice only
• 1 tsp organic raw honey
• ¼ cup water
• ½ tsp sea salt

Instructions

1. Remove the cauliflower greens, cut in florets, rinse and drain well.
2. Place the florets in the food processor and pulse until you obtain the rice size.
3. Heat the coconut oil in a large skillet, add the onion and garlic and fry for a minute.
4. Add the cauliflower and coconut milk, mix to combine and cook for five minutes on low heat, until the cauliflower is tender, but not mushy.
5. Remove from the heat and let cool.
6. Add the cauliflower, mango, bell pepper, red cabbage, spring onion and parsley in a large bowl and mix to combine.
7. Place the sauce ingredients in the blender, and pulse to obtain a smooth, creamy liquid.
8. Pour over the cauliflower salad and toss carefully, to combine.
9. Top with fresh parsley and almonds and serve.

Notes

[Laura14]

@lolakimono  Ooohh look at that!  You go girl!  

[Laura14]

Fast and east snacks:

Popcorn 

Pop your own (very easy with a brown bag or cheap microwave gadget)  and add spray butter or use other toppings (google to see a ton of them) to control the healthy aspect of this yourself.  Microwave bagged is not the way to go.

Apples or other vegetables with peanut butter or hummus or on their own

Slicers make it easy or you can buy precut to make it literally grab and go

Raisins or Craisins small boxes

Yes, craisins have sugar but if you can just eat one box and are behaving pretty much elsewhere, not a big deal

Teas

Hot teas, cold teas, etc. come in a ton of flavors including caramel, peppermint, chocolate, etc and can really stop a craving plus you get some water.  I keep a small electric kettle on my counter and drink several cups a day. A lot of the flavored teas are caffeine free too.  To sweeten if needed, I use stevia.

Lara bars

Already covered in an earlier post.  Just read the labels.  You know what every single ingredient is in these.

Tortilla chips with salsa or hummus 

Some people also like yogurt.  Just watch the salt on this.  Yes, making vegetable chips is the gold standard but if you don't have the time, tortilla chips which should be corn and a light oil only for main ingredients are just fine.

Nuts

People flip over the calorie count and fat on nuts.  Please don't.  They are protein packed and filling so it's tough to really overeat them to the point where you will cause yourself a problem.  And they are super good for you because they are the good fat for your brain and not the bad kind against your heart. Pick your favorite (I love pistachios) and go for it!  Again, watch the salt. I do unsalted or lightly salted every time. And you want the real thing not honey roasted or anything else.

Peanut butter

My go to dessert every night.  Two scoops (or more) of natural peanut butter from the jar.  I love this when I just need a hit.  Just make sure your peanut butter has one ingredient-peanuts!  (I use Smuckers) Turn the jar over to absorb some of the  natural oil before you open it.  If you really will eat the whole jar, ease into this one and never do it on an empty stomach which is why it's a dessert only for me most nights.

Toast

Sometimes, taking two pieces of bread and making some good old fashioned toast is what you need.  I use a smart butter or 100% fruit jam.  Polaner all fruit is truly all fruit if you want something a bit sweet with your crunch.  

You may find, as I did, that once you come off sugar, jam will probably not be your go to.  It's rare I choose the jam but a great option when just starting out.  Also, cinnamon with the butter or alone helps control your blood sugar.  Worth trying if you like it.

Cereal

A small bowl of Cheerios can also hit the spot as a quick and easy something to put in my stomach on a really lazy night.  Pure cheerios only with almond milk not any of the sugared up versions or find an all natural cereal you like.  READ LABELS.  It's amazing what's in most "natural" cereals even the organic ones.

Shakes

Did a previous post on this but also a good option if you just want a cool drink with some depth to it.  You can also get in your vegetables and other things you should have eaten but didn't.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

[cotton4me]

Some of the frozen vegetable blends make nice meals.  My favorite is the Birds Eye Baby Broccoli Blend.  It contains broccoli, water chestnuts, carrots and edamame beans (good source of protein).  I’m allergic to dairy so if I want to add some oil I use coconut or olive oil.  Depending on my mood I might add pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds or cashews, etc.  It only takes 5 minutes to cook.  It’s quick, easy and healthy. 

[esmeraldagooch]

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@Laura14 wrote:

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@esmeraldagooch wrote:

OP,   While have changed what we eat, I also changed how I cook it.  Plastic wrap , aluminum and plastic containers can leach chemicals and make you ill, especially when heated.   I have been collecting. Glass and Pyrex to replace Tupperware, snapware at my house.

---

@esmeraldagooch  Have not heard of aluminum being a problem so thanks!  I usually use foil when I bake or broil to save me the cleanup.

I actually have glass bowls on my list to buy.  I don't cook in the microwave except for the vegetables which are normally in their own steam bags or the potatoes in plastic wrap.  

I personally don't make myself nuts over every science report and glass is sometimes way inconvenient and heavy when you are taking your lunch to work everyday.  The ones I do use have claims that they are the better for you kind and I never have anything in the microwave for more than 6-8 minutes at most.  

Great advice if you are someone who wants to look out for that kind of stuff or has a sensitivity to it and has the time and/or convenience to put it into practice in your kitchen.

---

I recently took an extensive course on food safety directed at owner/operators of food operations.  One part of the course was on the acidity of foods and what reactions were cause by the pot/pan/dish/pitcher you served or stored the foods in.

I don't own copper in any type food serving items in my home but I do use aluminum foil.

By the way, Think of how may items are in the frozen food section of your store that contain tomato based sauces and are ready to be cooked in Aluminum disposable serving pans.

Here is just a snippet of this article.  Adding the rest incase you are interested.

https://www.scribd.com/document/335157485/Risk-Assessment-of-Using-Aluminum-Foil-in-Food-Preparation. 

Figure 5.

 Relation between the aluminum circular pan area with aluminum intake/personIn a situation where we have rectangular piece of 60x40 cm, the leaching is 174.3 mg/personfrom the foil only. While using a circular foil with a surface area of 22 cm

2

, the leaching is only 27.7mg/person.In both situations the leaching in such process is not only resulting from the aluminum foilcovering the pan, but also from the pan itself. The leaching resulted from using a pan of 22 cmdiameter in such experiment is 1000 mg, dividing this value by 3 as mentioned earlier gives a result of333.3 mg/person. Adding of this value to the leaching from the aluminum foil covering the pan resultsa total value of 361 mg/person which can be regarded as a very high value. The values would be evenhigher when using a larger pan which requires a larger diameter of aluminum foil to cover it. Also, theleaching becomes even more when the aluminum foil is covering some of the above earlier mentionedfood solutions and then introduced to oven at temperature of 220

 – 

 250

°

C for 1

 – 

 1.5 hours. Thealuminum leached from the foil wrapped grilled meat was higher than the foil covering the foodcooked in the oven at 200

°

C. It was reported that cooking temperature is more important in aluminumleaching than cooking time [5]. Higher cooking temperatures stimulated the leaching of aluminumfrom foil to meat because, at elevated temperatures, the oxide layer becomes thicker and changes froman amorphous to a crystalline structure. Using the different sides of aluminum foil (shiny and dull)showed that the differences in the aluminum leaching were not significant.

Aluminum foil is not suitable for cooking, and especially with acidic food. It is also possiblethat excessive consumption of food baked with aluminum foil may carry a serious health risk.

[Laura14]

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@cotton4me wrote:

Some of the frozen vegetable blends make nice meals.  My favorite is the Birds Eye Baby Broccoli Blend.  It contains broccoli, water chestnuts, carrots and edamame beans (good source of protein).  I’m allergic to dairy so if I want to add some oil I use coconut or olive oil.  Depending on my mood I might add pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds or cashews, etc.  It only takes 5 minutes to cook.  It’s a quick, easy and healthy meal. 

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@cotton4me  Such an excellent idea!  I have stacks in my freezer.  The best go to vegetable maker ever!!  God bless the steam bag inventor.  

[Mmsfoxxie]

What a great and timely thread @Laura14.  Some of these ideas I've done in the past such as freezing my bananas to use for shakes.  Sometimes I add spinach or kale.  Sometimes protein powder.  Delicious!  When I was working a protein shake was a stable lunch item with a piece of fruit or a 100 calorie snack.

I'm not much a purist with my food as some of you.  What's bad for you today is ok tomorrow and vice versa.  My breakfast when I'm eating correctly is Quaker steel cut oatmeal in the little packets.

For dinner I might have a large salad heavy on the veggies with minimal salad dressing.  Regular, I hate diet dressing.

Or I make a big pot of soup, usually with no meat.  The soup is very simple using olive oil to slightly sautée onion and garlic.  You can use any other veggies you like .... cabbage, zucchini, green beans, eggplant, tomatoes, etc.  any combination works.  Cook just long enough to be done.  Weight Watchers calls this zero points soup and can be eaten all day if you like.  If you add meat, like ground turkey, it's still low cal.

I can't see the post to see who suggested it but the toasted sweet potato sounds really good.

EDA:  It was @SilleeMee that suggested the sweet potato toasts.

[QueenDanceALot]

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@Laura14 wrote:
I'll start in case anyone wants some inspiration. According to my post in the healthy eating plan, here's what I've learned to do that works well for me.

Dinner and four other meals. I put a pound of ground turkey because you don't have to drain it and it's better for you (you can use beans for veg lifestyles) and skillet shortcuts from Picsweet which I found in Walmart. Ingredients are red potatoes, onions, and red and green peppers.

Throw it in a pot and cook/brown for 10-15 minutes. Spice it with what you like. This is the time I sneak my tumeric in.

While it cooks, I microwave a sweet potato which you get in your supermarket wrapped in plastic. It takes about 5-6 minutes. Top it with something you like that's real but not too terrible. I do put full fat sour cream on mine. Low fat anything tends to be added sugar and, in my opinion, fat is good for your brain. You just don't live in it or have it every meal or every day.

Voila! Healthy dinner with nothing processed and four more grab and go meals that I can make into a burrito, chili, shepherds pie, etc...

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NIce thread!  I am always in the market for some new meal ideas, especially those that are good for my health, taste good, and don't make me cook a lot, since although I like the IDEA of being a cook, I don't actually like cooking all that much. 

Just had a post workout shake with a new combo (I always have an after workout shake) that I threw together and it was delish!

1/2 frozen banana

1/4 cup frozen berries

1 scoop Vanilla Whey Protein (NOW Sports)

1/2 avocado

large handful of spinach leaves

1 teaspon Matcha tea

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 cup unsweetened coconut milk

1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

2 ice cubes

I also added a 1/4 tsp. of my probiotic powder (Klaire Labs) but I always add that to my shakes.  No flavor!

I use a Ninja to blend.

It was really good!

[lolakimono]

I made a big pitcher of lemon-cucumber water and found these gems at Costco today-

I halved them, tossed in EVOO and they're roasting with some Brussels sprouts for dinner.

[Laura14]

Almost Chinese Sweet and Sour Pork/Chicken

I don't care for Chinese food but, for some reason, I got a yen for sweet and sour something last year.  I hadn't had pork in forever so I created the following and it was really good!

Cut raw chicken or pork into stir fry strips.  

(My supermarket actually sells them precut for stir fry so you might want to take a look to save yourself a step and time)

Marinate in fruit jam either overnight or just toss it together right before.  I don't think it makes much difference.  I did overnight and it really didn't matter to me.  

(I personally found Polaner All Fruit apricot was the least offensive marmalade type of jam I could find with no high fructose anything in it)

In a pan, drizzle some olive oil and stir fry it up.

(If you like your vegetables cooked, toss in whatever you like too.  Carrots, peppers, broccoli, peas, etc.  I don't like my vegetables cooked, so I add them in afterwards.)

While you are frying up your meat and vegetables, microwave brown rice.  Make sure it's just brown rice and nothing else.  Most markets carry their own in bag which you just heat up but be careful they didn't throw in anything you don't want.  Of course, substitute if you don't like brown rice.  Pasta, quinoa, other rice varieties would work just as well.  

If you want to add a scrambled egg to the rice, you can throw that in with the meat or do it separately and toss it in later.

Plate your brown rice, throw over your meat and vegetables and egg if you didn't already and voila!  Quick, easy, and good for you almost Chinese food.

FYI, I don't like seafood so not sure if this will work with it but I imagine it would.  You're just quick cooking items and throwing them together.